The mental health of teenage girls, especially 14 year olds, has worsened according to a Cohort study recently published by The Department of Health. Teenage girls are more likely to suffer from stress and anxiety and over a third of teenage girls reported that they felt distressed, worthless, and unhappy and suffered from poor concentration.

The study reports that young people’s health and wellbeing is now slightly worse than it was in 2005 with girls faring less well than boys and with young people from relatively advantaged backgrounds being slightly more likely to exhibit social distress. Research shows that teenagers need on average, 9.5 hours sleep per night but only get 7.5 hours. Research also suggests that teenagers engaging in social media during the night could be damaging their sleep and increasing their risk of developing anxiety and depression. Girls tend to seek comfort on social media when worried and teens generally feel under pressure to make themselves available 24/7, suffering from anxiety if they do not respond to posts or texts. Girls especially feel more of a desire to be perfect and to avoid a ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) Hospital admissions for self-harm in the under 16’s have risen by an astonishing 52% with Head teachers in schools becoming worried.

In comparison with 2005, although girls’ mental health has worsened, teenagers are now more work focused, less likely to drink, smoke cigarettes, or engage in vandalism, graffiti or shoplifting.

Department of Health Longitudinal study of Young People in England. Cohort 2: Health and Wellbeing at Wave 2. Carli Lessof et al.